Once you have established your Makeup Artist education and have experience with professional makeup application, either from freelancing or creating makeup looks for your own platform and page promotion, and have also established your business by creating your website portfolio and/or an Instagram page, and have begun to receive engagement from your online/social media presence - you may be thinking, why not begin to expand your work onto other social platforms to reach and inspire an even wider audience? We suggest: go for it!

The best way to expand your business is to start creating videos! Some people may hesitate to create videos, thinking that they are a more expensive investment; but keep in mind, videos are far more informative than a picture, and much more engaging. You can start creating videos even on your smartphone, don’t be afraid to start small and grow as you learn!

Your first venture into video creation can be exploring the video platform on Instagram. Creating videos where your followers become engaged and interested in how you may have created a certain look from a photo that you shared. However, Instagram gives you only 1 minute to show how you created a makeup look and definitely is not enough time for your audience to understand the full step by step process.

With that said, the best option will be to apply your step-by-step videos to a YouTube channel, where you are able to show the entire process. You can give your followers a sneak peek of your work on Instagram (this is always highly recommended!) so that they will then “click the link in your bio” to go straight to your YouTube channel to see the full process with details and explanations. If your audience enjoys your videos, they will subscribe to your channel, and will then become the first to see your new videos. Once you create this sense of engagement and following, you will see that your audience will look forward to your content and ask for your new videos, and maybe even make specific video requests!

Things to think about before creating your YouTube channel:

1) You already are creating your channel with an advantage – you know the dedicated theme: makeup and/or hair (or both)! You will have to be consistent with the content as people who are looking for makeup related videos won’t like, for example, a vlog from your trip to the mountains, or anything else not connected with makeup. You can choose any aspect of the beauty industry that you want, including makeup, hair, and more; from describing how you created a certain look to reviewing makeup products and providing your thoughts, or creating unique hairstyles. In fact, reviewing makeup and/or hair products is a great idea especially if you know that people are interested in purchasing a particular product (for example: if it’s a hard to find new release!) and will be specifically looking for a review. You can also upload makeup tutorials. Creating the content that is most effective will be a bit of an experimentation to see what works best for you and your channel, and will take time.

2) Very importantly, you will have to carefully think about the name of your channel, as it will be impossible to rename later. The name should be catchy and an identity that you like from the beginning, you can also use your name from a platform people already know you from (for example: if you’ve created your Instagram following and want to be sure your followers can easily find you on your new YouTube channel!). Prior to creating a name, be sure to check if there is a channel with the same name or very similar to yours, as you don’t want people to get confused and head to the wrong channel.

3) Another important tip: The maximum video size cannot be more than 128 GBand is not to exceed 15 minutes in length; although if you verify your YouTube account they will let you upload longer videos (up to 11 hours – but keep in mind that it is important to keep your videos as concise as possible, as you want to keep the interest up from your viewers!).

Your first steps to create your YouTube channel:

1. A google account is a requirement at YouTube; go and register there if you don’t have one already, and then you can proceed with creating the YouTube channel.

2. Choose a picture that will represent you and your work. The channel icon is usually taken from your google account while the channel art can be created by yourself. This option can be a favorite picture of your work, or the logo of your business, etc.

3. Write a description for your channel. In this space, it is important to share who you are, how you got into makeup, what you like, or it can be any details that represents you! Don’t forget to add direct contact details as this will make it easier for people to reach out to you to offer a business partnership or collaboration!

4. You will have to make your account public otherwise it makes no sense as other people will not see your videos.

5. Choose a category where your videos will best apply to the topic of creation, likely this will I be in the “HowTo & Style” category since YouTube doesn’t have a specific category called Makeup or Beauty.

6. You may also be able to eventually earn money from YouTube if you let them monetize your videos. This can be allowed in the settings of your channel. Monetizing your videos means you let YouTube add ads to your videos and they will pay you accordingly based upon the quantity of views. Keep in mind, this is something to aspire to grow to - since April 2017 it doesn’t work for videos with number of views less than 10k. It’s frustrating, but should encourage you to build and grow your channel as best as possible!

You will definitely need to create videos that will make people interested in watching them to gain more views – engaging your audience from the first few seconds is very important! This also means that you should create an introduction that will interest people to stay on your page and watch the video for the longest amount of time, and maybe even they will decide to watch your other videos and/or subscribe to your channel! YouTube will rank your video higher on search results if people watch your videos longer!

In order to make your followers interested in your channel you have to constantly and consistently film new videos. Film as much as you can, creating new content for your viewers. Try to make them interested in what you do, you can see what interests your audience by the number of views you receive on every video you upload, as well as the comments! Engage your viewers and try to figure out what your audience likes best – ask questions! Ask for feedback!

As you begin to film videos on a consistent basis, your techniques will also improve and you will learn to find your own style, which new viewers will appreciate.

Additional tips, tricks, and thoughts on creating the best possible video content for YouTube:

1. Make sure you are speaking loud enough during the video, or your voiceover can be heard well, as no one will continue watching your video if they hear nothing. You have to be in the center of the shot while you are filming, talk directly to the camera so people will feel that you are talking to them!

2. Use music for your videos, it can be softly on in the background, in between cuts, and while you are showcasing the makeup application. This makes the “waiting time” a bit more pleasant while you are blending your eye shadow (for example). It’s important to only use non-copyright music as otherwise YouTube will block your videos. YouTube even has a great selection of non-copyright music available to you – you can search for your favorite here: https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music

3. Protect your videos from other people stealing them and using as theirs by adding a watermark or light text (not taking away from the video itself!) throughout the whole video. It’s also very important that this watermark is placed somewhere where it does not block your face or hands while you are trying to explain a technique. You can add this watermark in any of your video editing software.

4. Of course you have to edit your videos by cutting unnecessary parts, leave only what matters! You can also speed up some parts of the videos to make a same step pass by faster. Free video editors can be downloaded from the internet or can be found in your phone applications. We highly recommend the free applications that come already installed in your desktop computers; Windows Movie Maker or iMovie (https://www.apple.com/imovie/)

5. Every video has to have a name! Think of a name that will draw people’s attention so that they will want to click on it and watch it and maybe even subscribe to your channel!

6. To help people search for your videos on YouTube you can add hashtags like you do in your Instagram channel. Make sure that these tags will apply to your video content. Type less used tags as otherwise your video will be lost in abundance of other people’s videos. By this we mean you can narrow your tags from #makeup to #eyemakeup or #cutcreasemakeup. for example, or you can even create your own tags (your name or business name!) and this way keep your videos together and very searchable!

7. You can also add links to the products you used in your video in the description bar below in order to help your followers find them more easily (and if you work as an affiliate for a brand, be sure to add your direct link!). Exclusive coupon codes and partnering with brands is also a great way to promote your videos and receive more engagement – everyone loves a good incentive!

8. Always interact with your followers, it is very important on any social platform! If you receive a comment, you should always like and/or reply to it. Followers that feel appreciated will be more likely return to your channel and continue to watch your content! You can even ask your followers some questions, for example, if they liked your video and see what will they comment below. This way you can also improve/grow with the help of your audience!

9. Don’t be discouraged if you receive negative comments from time to time– just ignore the comment, delete it (if applicable) and move on, it means nothing to you! As these comments may distract your followers from the channel content you can remove them. However, some comments may contain constructive criticism so think them all over and make your next video even better!

10. Some people prefer a schedule for video uploading, while other vloggers will upload randomly, you can choose what works best for you by experimenting with uploading time.

11. You can also add links to your Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter accounts or any other social media account to your YouTube channel in the bottom right corner of your Channel Art to promote your entire social media network.

12. After you have created the YouTube channel and started uploading videos you will need to constantly and consistently promote your channel and videos on your other social platforms so that people know that you have your channel! You can add a link to your channel in the bio or write under your teaser Instagram video that people can see a full version with all the steps and details on your YouTube channel and providing the link. This is very important as people will not know it if you don’t tell them.

YouTube, like any other social media platform requires a lot of dedication and time to grow, you already have the talent and education – so just be patient, and with practice, continued experience, and time your social media presence will continue to grow and the investment that you have made in establishing your business and brand through a social media platform will be well worth it!